By way of example, with gearshift levers having electronic components, a complicated construction of a gearshift lever may be necessary due to the design preferences of a client. A motherboard, for example, may be required thereby in a base of the gearshift lever, and one or more secondary printed circuit boards may be needed in the gearshift handle or knob. Such a secondary printed circuit board in the knob can support, in particular, switches, e.g. a P-button for setting a parking mode of a transmission, a release button for releasing the parking mode of a transmission, and a button for activating a manual mode, a manual channel or a touch shift control, as well as light emitting diodes for a gear step display and a background lighting. Because there is normally too little space in the knob, it may be the case that not all of the components can be accommodated therein, making it necessary to split them up, or subdivide them. The motherboard and secondary printed circuit boards are normally connected to one another in an electrically conductive manner.
DE 10 2008 001 884 A1 discloses an actuation device having optical fiber bundles.
Based on this, the present embodiments create an improved shift device for a control system for a vehicle, and an improved control system for a vehicle in accordance with the independent Claims. Advantageous designs can be derived from the dependent Claims and the following description.
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, in particular an optical or opto-electronic monitoring of peripherally disposed shift devices can be implemented, which can be designed as multi-step buttons or switches, or step buttons or step switches. By way of example, optical fibers and other advantageous mechanisms, for example, may be used for transmitting shift settings in an optical signal conducted by optical fiber. In other words, light switches may be used for monitoring peripheral shift devices.
Advantageously, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, a shift device can be accommodated at a spacing to a control device and/or, under demanding geometrical conditions, in a space saving manner that can be flexibly adapted to the design preferences or client preferences, monitored opto-electronically, and optically connected to the control device. Thus, with distributed shift devices or operating elements, electrical components or functions can be disposed individually on a motherboard.
Such an optical connection of peripheral, multi-step shift devices on a centrally disposed control unit can provide advantages, because optical fibers are not sensitive to electric and magnetic disruptions. Furthermore, peripheral electronic components, e.g. in a knob of a gearshift lever for a vehicle transmission can be eliminated. Peripheral buttons or switches function thereby without electrical components. Furthermore, only one central control unit needs to be configured regarding safety regulations pertaining to electronics. Lastly, a high level of system stability and reliability can be achieved due to the elimination of secondary printed circuit boards and wiring.
In particular, a product safety can be increased, because components relevant to safety, which could pose particular risk factors in the control system, can be replaced. In particular with control systems having distributed peripheral shift devices or components, a reduction in development costs as well as unit costs can be achieved, because a functional safety only needs to be implemented in the central control device, and only optical fibers and bundle adapters are needed in order to interconnect the system components, for example, and an otherwise necessary seal for peripheral electronics can be eliminated. Better diagnostic measures can be implemented as well, because, due to the optical connection of at least one shift device to a control device, a universal and reliable diagnosis is possible, without limitations regarding different electrical specifications of the components.
Compared with an electrical interconnection, expenditures regarding parts and costs can be reduced with the optical interconnection according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the problem that electrical cable harnesses cannot have an arbitrarily large number of cables, for example, because the plugs, in particular, would otherwise have to be very large, such that it is frequently only possible to use flat plugs, although a structural space may be limited, can be avoided. In particular when used in conjunction with a shift lever, or a gearshift lever for a vehicle transmission or a vehicle drive, a shift rod may have a limited inner diameter, and it is possible that shift lever covers, which might hide such electrical cables, may not be desired by the client. Thus, it is possible to improve the adaptability to limited or complex forms, or a design freedom can be increased, according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Because system components for interconnected and/or peripheral electronics no longer have to be protected against a spilling of liquids, the effort required for sealing the control system can be reduced. Likewise, flex foil no longer needs to be used, for example, for connecting peripheral components, which on one hand requires a special constructional design in order that it not fall off prematurely, but on the other hand cannot simply replace a conventionally implemented secondary printed circuit board in terms of all of its applications. Because, according to embodiments of the disclosure, it is possible, in particular, to avoid providing functions relevant to safety on a secondary printed circuit board that is obsolete according to embodiments of the disclosure, a particularly simple development and implementation of control systems is enabled.